Safety-catch device



July 1.7, 192s.' 1,611,647

F. l.. MILLS SAFETY cATc nEvLcE Filed Jan. 11, 1926 3 Sheets-Sheet l July 17, 192s. 1,677,647

y F. L. MILLS swan :man nnvrcn Filed Jan.1'1. 192e s sheets-sheet 2 Patented July 17, 1928.-

UNITED STATES PATENT ol-frlcla..

FRED L. MILLaOn OAI; PARK, ILLINOIS, AssIGNOR To MILLS NOVELTY COMPANY, OF

.o'HIoAGd ILLINOIS, A cOnrOBATION oF ILLINOIS.

SAFETY-Amori DEVICE.

Application aleja January 11, 1926; seria; No. 80,569.

rlhe present `invention relates particularly to a safety catch device for use in connection with coin-controlled machines.

The invention is usefully employed, for example, in `connection with a coin-controlled machine of the general construction illustrated in the pending application of Fred L. Mills, Serial No. 7 38,831, filed September 20, 1924.

The primary object of the present invention is to provide a simple device which will operate as a safety feature in the event thatan effort is made to cheat the machine, as by subjecting the machine to a jarring action'at a time when the latching levers ofthe payoutslides are free from engagement with the slides to siti'on which permits coupons to bef` dis-y ermit the coin-controlled mechanism to e ect release of such pay-out slides as are Yto operate in eEecting discharge of coupons.l f f f The safety catch employedin the present invention operates to catch the pay-out slides in a partly retracted osition inthe event that the machine is su jected to such jarring action as to effect release of the latching levers in an effort to cheat the machine. rl`he result which is accomplished is to prevent jamming of the coupons and con- 'sequent inoperativeness of the machine which might otherwise occur when the payout Islidesware being moved to their normally advanced position in the operation of the machine.

The safety catch of the present invention is especially valuable when used in connection with the fraud-preventing device, disclosed in U. S. application5,508., filed J anuary 29,` 1925. j

The application just referred to discloses the' use of an auxiliary slide disposed below the pay-out slides and normally set in a po.

charged by the pay-out slides, and discloses, further,l anu inertiaoperated latch-member holding the auxiliary slide normally in the non-obstructing position. When the coincontrolled machineis subjected to such jarring` action as will throw the latching levers of the pay-out slides to a free position, the latch-member of the auxiliary slide is, atl the same time, thrown to the released position, thereby permitting the auxiliary slide to be moved by a spring to a position where lit will obstruct the dischargeA of coupons from the pay-out slides.

In accordance with the present invention, a safety catch for the pay-out slides is, at the. time of such jarring action, thrown to position to catch the pay-out slides in partially retracted position, so that the coupons in the coupon magazine, for example, will partially overlap the coupons in the pay-out slides, and thus, when' the pay-out slides are again moved to their normallyadvanced position, jamming of the coupons will not occur. A A

The present invention is. illustrated in its preferred embodiment in the accompanying drawings, in which;-

Fig. 1 represents a broken vertical sectional view of a coin-controlled machine of the character mentioned, equipped with the improved safetylock associated with the fraud-preventing device mentioned,the lsection being taken approximately as indicated at line n1-1A of Fig. 2; Fig. 2, a broken plan sectional viewtaken approximatelyras indicated at line 2-2 of Fig. 1; Fig. 3, a broken plan sectional view corresponding with Fig. 2, but showing the pay-out slides artly retracted but caught and heldby t e safety lock device; and Fig. 4, a broken vertical sectional view taken asindicated at line 4 of Fig. 3.

It is usual, in the type of machine referred to, to employ a stack of slides, the operation of which is controlled by the coin-controlled mechanism in a manner now understood in the art. The slides are provided with perforations, or chambers, which register with the lower Iend of a couponmagazine, or a check magazine, and the slides serve, in the operation of the machine, to transfer checks,

or coupons, and eli'ect their delivery to a disj charge chute with which the machine is equipped. The fraud-preventing device mentioned above comprises an auxiliary slide interposed between the stack 'of pay-out slides referred tmf and the passage leading to the discharge-chute. This auxiliary slide is provided with a'perforation which regisisters normally with the discharge passage whichfextends through the bottom on which the stack of slides is mounted. It-is so conloo 46; f .which is adapted to engage the rear ends of ploy a boguscoin,y or` to employ a penny,

trolled thatv if an effort is madeto cheat the machine by jarring or jiggling the machinefthe auxiliary shdewill operate as a shutter to close the discharge passage. Such jiggling of the machine may occur, for example, whenan effort' is being made to emwhere a coin of largerdenomination is required, to operate the machine. lThe safety 'catch of the Apresent invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings as comprisling a pivtally mounted bent leverJ asspciv gated' with the coin-controlled mechanism of .the machine in a manneruto be presently described.

In the construction illustrated, A deslgnates the casing of a coin-controlled machine which is .provided with a'baseA and which is 'equipped at its front .with vertical commodity 'com artments A2 (one shown); B

' designates a rame mounted in the casing and constituting a' support for the coin-controlled The bottom D is provided with a discharge passage'1 which communicates with the upper end of a discharge chute 2 which ex-V tefnds beneath the ejecting deviceC to a tray 3 'which is open at the iront ofthe machine.

^ The chute'2 is e u ipped with a shutter 2"I -which opens at t e proper timeto permit the contents of the chute 2 to pass to the tray 3. The shutter 2a constitutes no part ofthe present invention. "f

The pay-out slides .Dl are provided with vertical perforations 4 .which normally reg'\ ister withthe lower end of the coupon magazine 5. The lowermost 'one of the slidesl` D is equigpp.ed with` an uptuzrned arm 6 the supe'rposed` slides. The slides are moved forwardly to theposition shown .in Fig. 1

by means of a plunger '7 which is actuated by an arm 8 mounted on a rock shaft 9. i

The rock shaft 9 is" controlled. and actuated'v ina well-known inanner .in the operationv of the machine. l

The pay-out slides have lconnected there? with a lseries of coil springsvlO which tendA 'to move the slides rearwardly so as to bring vthe' passages, -or perforations, inthe slides into registration with. the' discharge passage 1.. The pay-out slides are latched in theirr forward positionby jlatch-levers l1 which are mounted on a vertical pivot 12. The latchlevers 11 normally are held in the latching 4 position bysprings 11. These latch-levers,r

or'certain of them, may be throwny away from the latching position by means of throw-out levers 13 whichf are controlled in a known manner. 4The pay-out slides. are .actuated from the bottom slide upward by means of the' springs 10, when the correspending latch-levers 11 are released froml 70 engagement with the slides.l

The fraud-preventing device mentioned above comprises an auxiliary-slide 1.4 inter- A posed between the loWermost'pay-out slide and the bottom D', said auxiliary slide be 7.5 ing provided with a perforation4 14a which registers normally with the perforation 1.

A spring 141l (Fig) tends to draw the aux- I iliary slide 14 rearwardly. .An auxiliary latching lever 15, pivot/ed at 15a and 80 equipped with a spring 1.5", normally prevents'the auxiliary slide 14 from'1noving rearwardly.- The spring 15b is a delicate one; and, in the event that the machine should be jarred, or jiggled, irr an eort. 85

for example, tojintroduce a penny 4past the guard devices'wi'th which the coin-chute of the machil e isD equipped, where the machine requires ay 0in of larger denomination, the

spring 15" will permit the latch 15 to move t" 'as a result of the jarring action and release the; auxiliary slide 14. The spring 14h will.

then draw the slide 14 rearwardly and bring a solid portion o'f the slide into position to obstruct the upperA end ofthe passage 1. 05

Hence, if a pay-out'slide, ora plurality oi pay-out slides, should be operated as a result 4of the `fraudulent introduction of a coin'oil impro er denomination, the pay-outslides,

nevert eless, Would, b'e unable to dischargenw the checks, or; coupons,I through, the passage 1, and thus cheating of the machine would be avoided. L

In Fig. .2, there isshown a supplemental latchingcdevice 16 for the.payout s1ides, this 105 device ing mounted on` a lever 16a. This device constitutes aportion of the coin-controlled mechanism yand operates in a well understood manner. It maybestated,l however.1 that when the rock-shaft 9 is turned 1m in .the 'direction indicated by the arrow in Fig. 1, an arm 17?' which depends from the rock-shaft engages a spring-held lever 18 .mounted on a shaft 19which drives a gea-rftrain 20 with which is connected a vane 21. H5

The lever 18 is connected'by means of a link 22 with the-lever 16*L and operates to move the lever 16" forwardly in a well known` manner when the rock-shaft 9 is turned in the direction indicated by the arrow iii Fig. leu

1. A spring 23 serves to return the lever; 18 to its normal position`and'retract the lever 16 -When the lever 18 swings. in the direction indicated by the arrowy in Fig. 2,

a'ratchet device (not shown) permits the 125 lever tov move idly with reiation to the geartrain 2Q; and, when the lever 18 is retracted by the4 spring 23, the .geartrain is actuated so as to turn the vane 21 and retard the re# tulrn (rearward) .movement of the lever 16a. isn

85 vided with a lug y engaged by the lshort arm 16c of the member d zlne,

The ej ecting device C is vof the rotary type.

It isiordinarily actuated by means of an ex ternal knob (not shown) applied to the projecting end of its shaft. The actuation of .the ejector is controlled by a latch device 24 which is, in turn, controlled by the coin-controlled mechanism. The latch device 24 forms no part of the present invention and need not be further described.

In accordance with the present invention, the safety catch device. E is associated iwith the pay-out'slides and cpo-acts with the auxiliary latch 16. The A4member=16 is in the form of a bell-crank lever which is pivotally connected at 25 with` thev free end vof the lever 16a. The forwardly directed arm of the member 16 has its frontextrcmity 16 adapted to engage the-upturned flange 6 of the lowermost pay-out slide after the slides 20 have been moved forwardly by the push-,rod

7 during the first portion of the operation of the coin-controlled mechanism. .The member 16-also has a short arm 16c with` which is vconnecteda-.coil spring 26 which tends to throwthe member 16 to the latching po-v Y 4 sition.

The safety catch E is pivotally mounted ,lon the frameat 27 and extends forwardly from the pivot. At itsfront end, the mem- 30 ber E is provided with a lateral catch-arm 28 which is adapted to extend across the pathfof the pay-out slides and catch `the fslides in partially retracted position. In front of the pivot-27 the member E is pro- 29`which is adapted to be 16. The spring 26 has one end connecte with the arm 16, dndthe other end con- `nected with the lever 16".

40 eration of the coin-controlled' mechanlsm, .the push-rod 7 shoves the pay-out slides to their normally advancedposition, the mem\ ber 16 is caused to 'turn aboutits pivot 25,

Y andthe free extremity 16? is caused to env gage the rear wall of the upturned liange 6 of the lowermost pay-out slide. Thus, the

pay-out slides will be held in their advanced position andthe latch levers 11 will be re-v lieved from pressure,`so that the latchdevers,Y

or certain of them, n be thrown /into nonengaging position by means of the levers 13, which are controlled by known coin-controlled mechanism.,

31 has its free end normally resting lightly upon the member E, as indicated in Fig. 2, When the machine is jarred, as by tilting it sidewise and striking a lower lateral corner of the machine upon a counter, for example, the safety catch direction indicatedby the arrow n F1g.'2, e5 thus placing the safety catch in the position iliary slide 14, thereby allowing it to close ypons in the rotating disks (notv shown), constituting a' portion ofthe well lThe safety -catch E lies on .the bottom plate of the frame B. A delicate leaf'spring` 30 which is secured -Vto the frame at a pointr `ing latch rearwardly" and thus operate to transfer E will be thrownin-the' shown in Fig. 3. If, during this jarring action, the pay-out slides, or some of them, are released by reason of the latch members 11 being thrown to the non-retainin posiftion, the springs `10 of the pay-out sli es will lretract the freed slides, but the slides will be caught in partially retracted position and held by the safety catch E. AZhen the payout slides are again moved'forward by the push-rod 7, and the Apressure ofthe pay-out 76 yslides against the arm 28 is relieved, and the auxiliary latch member 16 is permitted to swing inwardly so as to engage the rear surface of the flange 6, the arm 16c will engage the lug 29 and swlng the safety catchE back to its normal position shown in Fig. 2, it being noted that the spring 26 effects the actuation of the auxiliary latch 16 and through the medium thereof effects the return of the member E to its normal position. F ig. 4 illustrates the position of the payout slid D cafter the have been partially retracted and caught y the arm 28 of the safety catch device E. It is assumed that the arring action which threw the latch mem rs'11 towards the lateral side of the vmachinewhich is depicted at the top of Fig. 3 also threw the auxiliary latch member 15 in the same direction and released thevauxthe discharge-passage 1. It will be noted that the slides I) have been caught by' the safety catch E in such sition that the perforations 4 are partial y overlapped by 'the bore of the coupon magazine 5.. Assuming IN* metallic coupons tobe contained in the magaand in the perforations 4A (although not so shown), it will be understood that` the coupons of the magazine will occupy an overlapping relation with respect to the couperforations 4. Accordingly,V when the pay-out slides D are kagain forced forwardly by the push-rod 7, jamming ottV the machine will not occur, because the coupons in the perforations^4 will slide readily under'the coupons in the magazine. It may happen that some of the ayfout slides will ber4 released from thelatc members 11 and retracted, while others ,may be caught and heldby th latch levers 11. In such case, the same overlapping relationv of coupons' will occur with respect to the coupons contained in thebpenings 4 of the pay-.out slides, so that yvhenany partially retracted payiout slides are again forced forwardl by the vpush-rod 7, jamming will be obviate 'From the description given, it-`will be understood that in the normaloperation of the machine, one\o1 Vmore of the pay-out slides may be released from the correspondmembers 11 and maybe drawn checks,-.or coupons, tothe upper end of the discharge passa 1. In the normal opera tion, the pay-ou slides work from the botl v tom up. That is, the lowermost pay-out slides, the lowermost two pay-outslides, etc. may operate. Normally, the auxiliary slide 14 is in such position that the passage 14a registers with the passage 1. If the machine be jarrd,or violently tilted, particularly at a time when the member 16' is holding'the pay-out slides and. the pressure on the latch members 11 is released to permit one or more of the members 11 to be thrown by the mem; bers 13 to the non-latching position, the result will be to 'cause the delicate spring 15b to permit the auxiliar/yl lease. the auxiliary slide .14, whereupon the latter will be drawn rearwardly and will then serve as a shutter which closes the passage 1. Consequently, coupons will not be discharged into t-he chute 2 when the pay-out slides are actuated. Also, in accordance with the present invention, the jarring action which throws the latch members 111` to the non-latching position serve also to throw the safety catch device E in the same direction, and thus place the lateral arm28 of the device E in position to catch the pay-out slides in a partially retracted position. This insures an overlapping relation of coupons and prevents the machine from becomingjammed .tn catch the slides in sition when when the push-rod 7 returns thel pay-out slides to their normally advanced position. It will be understood frm the description iven, that the catch member E is actuated y its own inertia, or momentum, when the machine is subjected to'jarring action,vl as by striking the lower lateraledge corner of the ppears at the upper portion machine'which a of Fig. 2againsta counter. That is,under such jarrin action, thel safety catch? is thrown to t e latching position where it is in readiness to catch and hold the pay-out slides as they are retractedl by their springs. The foregoing .detailed description has been given for clearness of understanding onlyand no unnecessary be understood therefrom, but the appended lclaims should be construed as. broadly as permissible, in view of the prior art.

What I regard as new, and desire tosecure by Letters Patent, is:

1. In a machine of the l,character set forth;-

the combination with a coupon magazine and pay-out mechanism I associated Y. Atherewith comprising a' stack of pay-out slides, springs for actuating said slides, and latch-members v associated withsaid slides, of a safety-'catch device lightly 'held normally adjacent "the pathof the pay-outfslides land adapted to bethrownintothe path 'partially retracted poring action.,

the combination with 2. In a machine of the character set f orth, a coupon magazine and pay-out mechanism associated therewith comprising a stack of pay-out slides, springs latchg-lever 15 to reprevented.

limitations should x of the slides in positionthe machine is subjectedl t6 jar` A/for lactuatingsaid slides, and latch-members I' pay-out mechanism associated therewith pay-out slides,`

comprising a stack of springsfor actuating said slides and latch members .associated-with said slides, of .a`

safety catch device associated with said payout slides vcomprising -ar pivoted j'member adapted to be projected into the path of the slides, and a retaining device lightly restraining said pivotedmember from move- 'ment but permitting said pivoted member to be thrown to the safety position when the machine is 'subjectedv to jarring action.-

4. the combination with'n a coupon magazine, spring-actuated payout slides disposed below said magazgine, and latch members adapted normallyv to hold said slides in registry with the coupon magazine, of a normally retracted inertia-actuated safety catch device associated with said pay-out slides. and

In a machine of the character set forth,

adapted to be thrown to the "safety position 1n such relation as to catch and hold the slides in partially retracted position when the machine is subjected to jarring action, so-

will occupy. an overlapping that the coupons l relation and jamming of the y machineK will be i?" l 5. In a machine of thlfchara'cter` set forth,

the combination with a coupon magazine, a Stack of pay-out slides disposed'beneath said magazine, springs adapted to actuate said pay-out slides, 'latch -members controlling the actuation oflsaid pay-out slides, an aux- 1 iliary slide beneath said stack of pay-out slides and normally -in position to perniit discharge .of coupons when lthe pay-out slides are operated, a. spring tending to move said auxiliary slide to an obstructing vposition. and'an inertia-operated latch member 'holdingtheauxiliary slide normally in the non-obstructing position, of an inertia-operated safety catch device cooperatlng with said pay-out slides and'adapted to lcatch and hold the slidesin partially lretracted position 120 when the machine is subjected to jarring .ac-.h i

tion iin an effort to cheat the machine.

6. In a machine ofthe character set forth, the nombinatlion l with a coupon magazine,

`Vpay-out mechanisnncomprising a stack of pay-out slides disposed beneath said magazine, springs `tending to actuate said payout slides, latch members controlling the yactuation of said pay-out slides, a device for restoring the pay-out slidesfto their normal position, and an auxiliary latch device for holding the pay-out slides' and permitting freedom of said latch members for an instant during the operation of the machine, 5 of an inertia-operated safety catch.l device adapted to be thrown into the'path of the pay-out slides when the machine is subyE'x f jected to a jarring action in an eor't to cheat the machine, said auxiliary latch device having means for restoring said safety 10 catch device to its normally retracted posi-I tion. i

FRED L. MILLS. 

